My Neighbor won’t stop singing Christmas Carols Part 2
Well its been a couple days since my original post that’s because things have gotten more and more strange around here. First let me say that a lot of you had great ideas. We did in fact use ropes to pull my neighbors from their door steps. Once they were at a safe distance they snapped out of their trance or whatever it was immediately. Dehydrated and half starved... Once the police officers that showed up and I pulled all of the neighbors to safety I suggested as some of you did, that we burn the trees. None of them were too keen to burn their houses down and at first, we weren’t positive it was the trees because none of them could talk until their sore throats healed up enough to give us an explanation. But once they could speak, they told us everything they knew. Apparently, my immediate neighbor Arnie and his family had gone to a local tree farm simply to enjoy the outdoors and scout out some potential trees for the upcoming holiday, they had no intention of actually buying a tree this early, the poor man just wanted to take his wife and daughter out for some family time. He said that while they walked their daughter Tania had told them she saw something small moving between the trees. Her parents thought it was just her young imagination running wild. Whatever it was had led Tania and her family to a certain area of the tree farm where all the trees were tall and heavily laden with dark green pines. Arnie said the rest is sort of blurry like a dream, but he remembers feeling obligated to take a tree home immediately. They used tools from the barn and cut the tree down themselves, none of them remember paying for the tree or even driving home. The other neighbor that had set up their tree second had a very similar experience, I found out that their names are Dillon and Ashley, and this was their first year in the new house. Both families mentioned seeing something moving between the trees sort of leading them to the part of the tree farm where the thick trees were. Since nobody wanted to risk being forced to sing Christmas carols non-stop, the police and a few others in the neighborhood used drones to see what was going on. We used the drones to go into the house and investigate the trees. Both houses had the same situation. The Tree was set up and decorations were placed at the base, the families then must have been forced to begin singing while whatever was in the tree consumed the family pet…for Arnie, their dog Chello still lay at the base of the tree now emptied of blood, for Dillon and Ashley they had a cat…had. While we discussed our options on how to handle this, one of the drones was knocked down by something inside the tree. When we replayed the video, we could see a long narrow, what looked like a branch, reach out of the tree and smack the drone to the floor. It then made a gurgle and a click noise and receded back into the tree. All of this happened the evening I posted. The police left the affected families in the hospital while they roped off their houses, they sent units out to the tree farm to investigate and two patrol cars remained behind to keep an eye on the houses. That was the last I talked to the police. I came home and looked up whatever I could online. The closest thing I can think of is some kind of trickster goblin thing called a Kallikantzaros, but aside from the pure absurdity of it, these creatures weren’t supposed to appear until the 12 days of Christmas being December 25 to January 6 so they were extremely early. I kept peeking through the blinds as I did what research I could. The neighbor’s door had been closed, I’m assuming by use of ropes. But knowing what had just happened I couldn’t help but be curious. Not white people in a haunted house curious, but curious enough to keep an eye on the house. Surprisingly the news hadn’t picked up the story and no announcements had been made about staying away from the tree farm. I called one of the officers that had left me their card, hoping for an update or an explanation but he didn’t answer. I was ready to call it a night when I saw movement next door. It was quick but sent a shadow across their window. It caught my attention and I began to stare across the yards. It looked like a bush itself scurrying across the kitchen, it used thin dark arms to open cabinets, close and open the curtains and even open the refrigerator. Its body was made up of the same thick dark pine that the trees was, so much so that I started to wonder if what I had seen of the tree had just been the creature itself in hiding. I tried my phone again to alert the officers, no answer. I watched the thing move around the house quickly. Then another appeared. And another. Soon I had my eye on four of these things trapped inside my neighbor’s house. I called 9-1-1 but it only rang and rang. Now I’ve called this number more than a few times and I knew that in an emergency if the nearest department didn’t pick up it would patch you through to the next nearest facility. It didn’t do that. I hung up and pocketed my phone. Then I watched as these things moved into the living room and I lost sight of them. I went into my bedroom and pulled my pistol out of the night stand. I remembered the two patrol cars that were on the street, so I opened my front door very slowly and walked out into the drive way to get a better look at my neighbor’s house. Their front door was open. I swore out loud and looked down the street towards Dillon and Ashley’s house. Their door was open as well. These things had escaped. I turned towards one of the patrol cars, it was empty, and the door had been left open. That’s when I heard it. Someone had started singing “Silent Night” I followed the sound of singing (at a safe distance) to the end of the street, each of my neighbors’ houses had their doors open, and the singing was much louder now and sounded more like a choir than a single person. I looked back towards my house and watched to my shock as one of these Pine Goblins or whatever scampered into my house. I went to duck behind a bush, hesitated to make sure it was in fact a bush…once I verified that it was a shrubbery, I hid behind it. The creature half walked half hopped through my house, opening doors and cabinets and knocking things over like a misbehaved kid in a store. It clucked or giggled when things broke. When it was certain my house was empty it scurried outside and moved in the direction of the choir, passing in front of me by about ten feet I could make out its shape a little better. The thing looked like a pine needle version of Cousin It from the Addams Family, it moved with small branch-like spindly arms at its side and little branch looking feet. I followed at a distance, it was fast. I had to jog a little to keep up, but not too fast because I didn’t know exactly how big it’s sphere of influence was. About five blocks down, and passing dozens of open doors I found the source of the singing… My neighborhood had been gathered by these Kallikantzaros, or Pine Goblins, whatever they were, had apparently gone door to door luring people to it. I watched as all of my neighbors and more walked in one large mass all singing “Silent Night” perfectly in sync. I couldn’t see the front of the pack, but I imagined that’s where most of the Pine Goblins were, leading the pack. A few of them walked or danced at the sides of the singing people, they were escorting them somewhere, like a herd of cattle. Some of the creatures would stop at houses and knock on doors, others would attempt to open them and if able to they would step inside and be shortly followed out by one or more persons singing along to join the herd. We moved quickly. The mass slowly gaining more and more singers. After almost twenty minutes of walking the herd of singers stopped moving. I was far behind, but I froze as well. The people kept singing. They sang without moving for about ten minutes before starting to walk again. When I caught up to the spot they stopped at my heart dropped into my stomach. There were at least ten bodies lying on the ground. Each one opened up and drained of blood. The creatures had stopped to feed. I tried my phone again, still no answer from emergency services. I could only imagine that they were somewhere singing along to Christmas Carols. I continued to follow at a distance. Noticing now that they would sing each song at a minimum of four times back to back before switching to another. It was always Christian songs and just the classics. We walked for miles, a few times the herd would get close to a passing car, the first time It happened I got excited just seeing another person. But when the car got close it slowed, stopped, and the people inside would join the herd. Singing with the others. It seemed like the area of influence was much bigger with this herd, possibly because there were so many of the Pine Goblins. I was scared before. But when I heard singing from another direction, I started to lose hope. I looked over, across the highway to see another herd being Sheppard by these creatures. It was a larger herd than this one. With dozens of the small dark green Cousin It creatures around them. I backed off even further. Thinking that once these herds combined there would be no telling how large the influence would be, I slowed down and that’s when I heard someone. “Hey! Hey buddy!” I spun around, pistol out. Three people were crouched about twenty yards behind me. “Woah Woah we’re not like them! Ya hear us, nobodies singing.” One of them said. I lowered my weapon. “How long have you been following me?” “We’ve been watching you for almost an hour, but you were too close, and we didn’t want to risk them hearing us.” Explained a man about my age, maybe twenty-five. “Any idea what those things are?” I asked. “Not really…we know they communicate with clicks and grunts, and… they drink blood.” He said. This time another spoke, a tall woman with black hair, none of these people were familiar to me. “Couple days ago, I watched my neighbors carry a tree into their house, I don’t think they can only make you sing, I think they can make you set the whole damn tree up and I’ve seen piles of decorations at the base of the tree. Like some kind of tribute or something. Couple hours later they started singing, they didn’t stop until the police came and pulled the kid out with a rope. His Mom was dead by the time they got there.” We moved slowly and distantly, explaining what we had seen and heard while we followed the mass of Christmas Carolers. A few more miles, another stop while the creatures ate, and we started seeing less and less new people joining in. We started walking through areas that looked to have been hit already. Doors were already opened, and the creatures didn’t stop to check houses anymore. “I hate Christmas Carols, even in December…” muttered the other guy. “Where are we going?” Asked the youngest of the group, a teenager named Kelly. The rest of us looked around the area, the sounds of “Noel” carrying across the space between us and the herd. “The only thing this direction is…the tree farm.” The woman said. We stopped and looked back towards the town, our home, left empty while its inhabitants sang Christmas carols and marched towards what we could only imagine as the source of these Pine Goblin creatures. I logged as much of this as I could while we are walking. We still have a way to go, we’ve started gathering supplies from the empty houses and we each have a backpack with some food and drink. I’m not sure what we’re going to do when we reach the tree farm but if any of you have ideas, we could use all the help we can get. Category:Christmas Category:Reddit Pastas